


Dark Horse

by Slipgizzle



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Horses, Prompt Fic, Shapeshifting, Spirit Animals, Wolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-04 15:58:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10282607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slipgizzle/pseuds/Slipgizzle
Summary: A response to this prompt from writing-prompt-s on tumblr:"At 14, every human gains the ability to transform into their spirit animal. Your noble family, comprised entirely of wolves, isn’t happy with your transformation…"





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt can be found here  
> writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156249252684/at-14-every-human-gains-the-ability-to-transform  
> This was just for shits and giggles but it started getting serious so I thought people might enjoy it

It was Anders’ 14th birthday tomorrow and he should be happy about it. He was only nervous. It was such a big deal, the 14th birthday was absolutely the most significant right of passage he would ever go through. He sat on his bed the morning before his birthday quietly agonizing over the weight on his shoulders.

He had probably had been sitting around too long because his door got nudged open and a large grey wolf padded in. Anders sighed and leaned over the side of his bed.

“Hi Ben, is it as crazy downstairs as I think it is?” he asked. The wolf hopped onto the bed and sat down very neatly before his body stretched and shifted and blurred at the edges, Anders eyes watered looking at it. After he blinked hard a couple times he looked up to see his big brother sitting in front of him. Ben brushed some white fur off his sweater and grinned at Anders.

“I have literally never seen our house like this it’s incredible,” Ben said while laughing at Anders horrified face.

“Aunt Maria’s six sisters showed up, and they brought all their kids.” Ben said.

“Are they as worked up as they were during Eli’s birthday?” Anders asked.

“Um, maybe a little less? I don’t know, why are you nervous?” Ben asked. Anders wrung his hands.

“I...I don’t think I’ll be able to top Eli, you know? What if I disappoint everyone?” Anders said. 

“This isn’t a competition dude, tomorrow's going to be your day and a family day, just relax, okay?” Ben said and got off the bed, pulling Anders along with him.

“C’mon you can’t hide from the chaos all day.” Ben said as he dragged Anders out of his room and down the stairs. 

And it was chaos. 

Seven aunts and their families were all visiting, adding to the six uncles and their families. Each and every aunt, uncle, cousin, and sibling had a wolf shape they changed into whenever they wanted. About half the people in the house was a wolf at any one time. A group of cousins all in their fur raced by. Four were grey wolves, three were red wolves, two were timber wolves, and two were ethiopian wolves. Anders watched them run down the hall with a twinge of envy. He was the youngest in the entire family and so did not have his animal shape yet.

But that would change tomorrow.

Anders and Ben walked down the stairs and down three different halls to get to the kitchen. Their family was huge and well-established, the house was massive and equally noble. There were other families of just one kind of spirit animal, but none so large and none made entirely of wolves. 

The kitchen was already crowded, at least four people were cooking and it looked like at least eight were loitering and hoping for taste tests. Anders and Ben got muscled out of the room and wound up on porch.

The seven sisters were lounging on the picnic bench on the porch, all of them as wolves. They were Anders’ cousins, the Iberian and Grey wolves looking up at them were intimidating but it was Eli that stood out. She lay across the top of the table taking up almost its entirety. The white wolf was half as much larger than even the next largest among them. Her jaws were bigger, her teeth were sharper, the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter was the only direwolf known and the pride of the entire family.

Anders, the seventh son of a seventh son, had a lot to live up to no matter what Ben said.

“Hey guys, scoot over,” Ben said and sat on the bench, yanking Anders down with him. One by one, each of the sisters lost their fur and sat on the bench as humans. Eli seemed to be content to stay a dire wolf for now.

“Wanna weigh in on the betting pool Andy?” Jess asked wryly. 

“Uhh...what?” Anders said.

“Everyone’s betting what you’re animals going to be, so far arctic wolf and dire wolf are in the lead,” Anne explained. Anders’ eyebrows went up.

“You guys think I’ll be a dire wolf?” He asked.

Eli nodded her massive head. Anders grinned widely as he imagined himself as a huge and dashing dire wolf.

The rest of the day passed in a noisy blur. Aunts and uncles congratulated him and his parents and his grandparents. By nightfall Anders was feeling overwhelmed and more than a little anxious.

After a positively mad dinner everyone gathered outside.

“Do you remember what to do?” Anders mother asked as he put on a jacket.

“Yeah, I sit under the cottonwood tree that stands at the river’s bend, and I wait there,” Anders parroted.

“And don’t forget you’ll be disoriented when you wake up tomorrow as a wolf okay? Just stay by the cottonwood and your father will come get you in the morning.” She explained.

“Okay, mom,” Anders said and walked towards the woods at the edge of the property as everyone behind shouted goodbyes.

Anders walked for a while, navigating the forest he had known so well for all of his childhood. He knew exactly which tree he had to find, knew exactly the bend in the river it was sitting at. 

When Anders arrived there he sat himself under the cottonwood, leaning against the trunk. It was already getting dark and Anders felt an unwelcome twinge of anxiety, it felt like the most important day of his life but it passed so quickly. He decided, in order not to agonize over things, to just go to sleep now and deal with the results in the morning. He laid down in the grass under the cottonwood and the burble of water in the creek and the gentle breeze lulled him easily to sleep.

___________________________________________________________

 

He woke up confused, his body wasn’t laid the same way it was when he went to sleep. He had the unpleasant sense of having been moved and disturbed in his sleep. He shifted, his legs and arms not bending in the way he was used to. There were new things to move, a tail, and it was such a strange sensation to suddenly have muscles he didn’t once have that Anders shot into full wakefulness. He was bigger, that was for sure, his body spread out across the ground. Anders swung his new head and looked down his new body.

He was not a wolf.

Anders new body shuddered with the shock and panic and his mind blue-screened at the sight of a body that was  _ not a wolf _ .

He stared at himself for an indeterminate amount of time, not even recognizing what animal he was now, stuck on the fact he wasn’t  _ what he was supposed to be _ . 

His blood rushed through him, and he felt too hot and too cold at the same time. Anders shook himself and took several large breaths, each coming out of him in a large  _ whoosh _ .

Anders looked at himself again, this time to see what he was now.

He was covered in thin black fur, he had a long silky black tail, four black legs, and four black hooves.

He was a  _ horse _ . A goddamn  _ nag. _

Overtaken with frustration Anders lept to his feet, no, his  _ hooves _ . He swayed on his new legs, ears back, snorting angrily. Anders felt cheated, he was supposed to be a  _ wolf _ . He stomped toward the creek, bending his long neck to get a look at himself, and saw the long face of a tall horse staring back. This face had no markings, he was black from nose-tip to tail-tip, and he was long and lean in the way of half-grown colts. 

Faced with the truth of it sent Anders back to fear. The family was going to be disappointed  _ at best _ . At worst, what would they do? Can he still be pack if he’s not wolf? Will he be kicked out? Horses don’t make much sound by way of sadness, but his head hung low. 

His head shot up with a thought, though, he could run away! After all he was a horse, he could run farther than people would bother to look, and they would be looking for a wolf not a horse.

Just as Anders was laying his plan out he heard a rustle in the bushes. Anders froze, ears pushed forward, legs stiffened and readied to bolt. A grey wolf bounded through the brush, Anders jerked to run but recognized this wolf as his father, and so stayed still. The wolf saw the black horse and stood shock-still, staring openly. 

The wolf’s form shivered and blurred and stretched until Anders father, as a man, stood before him.

“Anders? Is that you?” the man asked and the horse dropped his head low.

“Fuck. Goddammit, Anders can you change back?” the horse lifted his head again, ears back.

“Listen, you need to concentrate and think how it felt to have fingers, toes, standing upright, wearing clothes. Remember being human and don’t fight the change as it comes okay?” His father said and Anders paused. Usually when someone first changed they stayed in their shape all day, as a tradition. Anders couldn’t say he was very surprised with his father’s request but he was hurt.

Nevertheless Anders did as he was told, thinking hard on memories of hands and feet and being human. The shift started and felt strange, it felt like falling, slipping down an icy hill, before he could think to flail against the feeling he was tumbling to the ground with arms and legs.

Anders, now human, looked up at his father. The man’s face was grim and Anders’ bottom lip trembled.

“I’m sorry,” Anders muttered, unable to look his father in the eye.

“It’s okay, come on get up, let’s go home.” He helped Anders stand and they began toward the estate. They walked in silence and Anders never managed to gather the courage to look at his father, fearing the expression he would see. He stared at his feet and walked toward his home with the painful resignation of a condemned man.   
  



	2. Chapter 2

The house was quiet when they finally got back, it was early and everyone was still asleep. As soon as they walked through the patio door Anders turned towards the stairs, desperate to hole up in his room, but his father grabbed his shoulder and steered him past the stairs and through the kitchen. 

His father directed Anders down the hall to Anders’ grandparents room. The teen tried to dig his heels in as a bid to stop and bolt up to his room, but his father wound up practically dragging him into the alpha’s room.

His dad shut the door behind them, Anders’ grandparents were both grumbling awake. Grandma Edna put on her glasses and blinked at her son and grandson as Grandpa Wallace started shuffling out of the sheets.

“Dennis? What’s wrong? Anders are you alright?” Grandma Edna asked.

“Did something go wrong?” Grandpa asked as he got out of bed. First transformations sometimes went wrong and the kid might wake up half human half animal, but Grandpa squinted at Anders’ human shape and hummed. Anders was pushed into the middle of the room.

“Show them Anders.” His dad said. 

Anders didn’t look up at anyone. Wolves and humans alike have dominance, but not in the stereotypical beat-the-crap-out-of-the-upstart way but more in the way of grandma grabbing her grandkid by the ear and telling them to sit still and wait for dinner like everyone else. Anders didn’t have to fear teeth from either alpha or his dad, but that doesn’t mean he liked the idea of disappointing Papa Wally and Granny Nana.

“Anders.” His father said firmly and he winced. He thought hard on the single memory of hooves and a tail, he felt again the strange falling sensation, he flung his arms out to catch himself and heard the stamp of hooves on a wood floor.

Anders opened his eyes. His first thought was how much he liked being this tall, but his grandparents were both frozen with shock. They stared at the black colt standing in the middle of the room. 

Grandpa Wally recovered first, clearing his throat and walking up to Anders. He gave the horse a quick look-over.

“Well after five generations of wolves this was bound to happen eventually,” Wally said.

“What does it mean?” Dennis asked.

“Mean? Why does this have to mean anything?” Wally said.

“Wallace, Andy’s the seventh son of a seventh son and the first in our family in over a century to not be a wolf, it’s probably significant.” Edna said, getting out of bed.

“Andy,” she said and the horse twitched his ears up. “You can turn back now, sweetie, you can go back to your room if you want.” 

Anders shifted back, swaying on his two legs, before rushing out of the room.

The second he closed the door behind him he took off at a run, racing through the house and up the stairs. He didn’t care how much noise he made as he ran down the hall all the way to his room. He shoved his door open, but was careful not to slam it behind him. 

Anders staggered towards his bed, gulping breaths. He collapsed onto his bed, curling up into a ball. His eyes stung and his face felt hot and Anders couldn’t manage to put together a coherent thought. 

He stayed there, on his bed, stewing in misery, all morning. After a couple hours he started to hear everyone getting up and moving around the house. There was a murmuring of commotion from downstairs and Anders felt the painful anxiety return because he knew exactly what they were all talking about. Anders wrapped the pillow around his head and whined, wishing he had run away when he had the chance. 

The day went on, Anders ignored growing hunger in favor of avoiding his family. It was only at dinner time that someone knocked on his door. 

“Andy? Can I come in?” His mother said. Anders threw the covers over his head just as his mom opened the door.

“Come have some dinner, Andy. You can’t stay in your room forever.” She said. Anders said nothing.

The mattress dipped as his mother sat at the end of the bed.

“You know we don’t care what your animal is, there’s no shame in it, really.” She said softly. Anders didn’t believe her in the slightest.

“Come on get up, let’s go,” she said yanking the pillow off Anders’ head. Anders jumped at the shock of it, sitting up quickly. He hesitantly looked up at his mother and wondered if he was imagining the pity in her eyes.

“Enough with the puppy dog eyes, it’s not as bad as you think.” She smiled with that voice so laid back Anders believed her this time. She got up and Anders followed.

He could hear the family gathering in the dining room, the noise of them travelled all the way up the stairs even from several halls away.

The table was set by the time Anders and his mother made it to the dining room and everyone was finding their seats. 

With a family of wolves so large just getting a seat was a struggle within itself but it seemed everyone always got the seats they always took. The alphas were always at the head of the table and their eldest children sat next to them and the next eldest next to them and so on until Anders; who sat near the end of the table.

But first everyone got their food. The food was all in pots and pans in the kitchen, the littlest of second and third cousins however many times removed got theirs dished first. Then the alphas came around and spooned what they wanted onto their plates. Anders was usually near the end of the line with cousins around his age, but there was always enough food.

Most everyone was talking over his head, mercifully ignoring him for now. Anders shuffled his way out of the kitchen and into the dining room, sitting himself down in his usual chair and he thought that the night might go okay if everyone continued to ignore him. Until Ben took the chair next to him. Anders didn’t look at him, instead picking at his food a bit.

“Andy? Are you okay? How’re you holding up?” Ben asked and Anders winced at the genuine concern in his voice.

“‘M okay,” Anders said and knew it was stupid to hope it would be left at that.

“What happened this morning?” Ben asked.

“How much do you know?” 

“I know you’re not a wolf, everyone knows that, but we don’t know what you are instead,” Ben said. Anders considered this for a moment before looking up at Ben, but he could see Eli starring at him from across the table and suddenly he couldn’t say anything at all.

Anders’ eldest brother, Samson (never Sam), spoke up from a few seats down.

“Andy we’re going to need to know at some point, if only because we need to know if you’re going running with the pack tomorrow,” Samson said and Anders’ chest went tight.

He’d forgotten about pack night. Pack nights were usually Saturdays when everyone was off work and school. They’d all go running across the estate as wolves and just enjoy the midsummer day the best way they knew how. 

“Andy’s not going with us tomorrow, it’ll be too dangerous,” his father said from across the table. That got everyone’s attention.

“What do you mean  _ too dangerous? _ What is he?” Anders’ aunt and Eli’s mother asked loudly. Everyone seemed to lean forward in curiosity, if they had their wolf’s ears they might be pricked forward in attention.

Anders’ father took a sip of wine, set down his drink.

“He’s a horse.”

The room exploded into noise.

Several cousins burst into laughter, several aunts and uncles shouted in dismay, yet more refused to believe it. 

_ “No one in this family is ever anything other than a wolf!” _ Someone shouted.

_ “What does this mean?” _

_ “How could this happen?”  _

_ “Is he still Pack?” _

_ “How can we have a wolf pack member who isn’t a wolf?” _

Apparently that was the last straw because Papa Wally stood from his seat.

“ **_Enough!_ ** ” Everyone fell silent.

“You can all  _ shut the hell up _ . Andy is my  _ grandson _ and as apart of our family as any of you! I’ll hear no more of this  _ belonging _ or  _ not belonging _ . Anders can’t come on the run because he is a new shifter, unused to the instincts that come with it and no one among us have the experience to help him with it.” Grandpa Wally said and sat down. And that was apparently the end of the conversation.

At last for now. Anders stared at his plate, occasionally nibbling at food, he could feel the eyes of family members on him but he didn’t dare look up at them. He didn’t think he could bare not just the contempt but it was the  _ pity _ he feared. 

The rest of the dinner was unusually quiet and awkward.

The second Anders finished his dinner he brought his plate to the kitchen and bolted back up the stairs.

He made it to his room before anyone could say a word to him and he made sure to lock the door behind him. He flopped down hard on his bed and tossed the blanket over his head. Anders breathed hard to stave off tears welling up. He felt torn in two and ready to tear his hair out. 

The part of him in the forefront, the loudest voice, his strongest want, was to be a wolf. He wanted to be pack, he wanted to be the wolf his family could be proud of, that was all he wanted. He railed against the god awful twist of fate that gave him hooves instead of paws. 

Another part of him, smaller, quieter, wanted to sneak outside. Some part of him wanted to get away from his family, from the stress, and run on his new hooves for a while.

When his mind turned from fretting and toward sleep he wondered what his mane might feel like in the breeze. His mind fell easily, like a drifting leaf on the wind, slowly into sleep and his last thought was imagining what it might be like to be as wild and reckless as he wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops this is growing big plotty legs this one might go in for the long haul, next chapter will be longer


End file.
